Can Tyler Perry Ride on the Wave of Black Panther’s Success?

By:  BlackConservative93

With the success of Black Panther, black directors are taking note on how to create a cult audience.  Hopefully the demand for more black directors is met as our stories need to be told.  Honestly, I really despise Tyler Perry.  Now do not get me wrong, his movies have launched the careers of plenty of black actors and it is appreciated, but it’s 2018 and the Madea troupe is getting old.  Granted dating is complicated, but not enough to see the same old trials and tribulations that black women from the South face.  We always get the bald-headed dark skin black men whom are selfish, abusive, want white women and cannot handle or appreciate a strong/independent Christian black woman.  Honestly, his plays are not that big anymore and the black audience is getting tired of black woman tragedies.

My brother and I still respect Tyler Perry as a director with shows like House of Payne and Meet the Browns are black family classics that never get old.  The Paynes is a spin-off continuation of House of Payne as Curtis and Ella Payne move to Florida to retire after moving away from Georgia and running a business.  Unfortunately, Curtis gets hoodwinked with a bad real estate deal and ends up housing a single mother from her abusive boyfriend.  Not even into 8 episodes I got bored with the typical Tyler Perry templates.  He lacks originality, I mean, Madea’s Boo Halloween was something new and less serious, but 1 and 2 were the same thing.  The jokes are dry and sexually creepy; we get it Madea used to be a stripper and it has been referenced too many times.

Tyler Perry has a bad habit of shooting himself in the foot, he has been the unofficial and mostly unwanted voice for black women.  Sexual assault is not something the black community is too honest about, but he needs to give the camera to a black woman.  Madea in any movie or television series does more harm than good, especially for dark skin girls.  Even though she is supposed to be motherly-figure, she ends up being a mammy-figure who ruins relationships/marriages and slut-shames young girls.  I do notice Tyler Perry wanting to retire Madea and move on to thrillers.  His new movie starring Taraji P. Henson called Acrimony seems interesting, but this story does sound too familiar for a black audience with the plot of a black woman wanting revenge from her lying/cheating husband; yet again an overused black movie template.

In my opinion, he needs to start clean and study white directors, especially those who have a teen/young adult audience.  Catherine Hardwicke, the director of The Twilight series, is a perfect person to study.  People want to see aliens, robots or something unimaginable.  Okay, we can even dumb it down for a more realistic setting to where teens want representation for their race, skin-tone and sexuality.  Tyler Perry should explore more and make stories about interracial couples (Get Out was a hit because of that), LGBT couples (Moonlight) or something new like a story on the struggles of an inter-religious couple.

I will applaud Ava Duvernay for her film adaption of A Wrinkle in Time for giving black girls real magic, despite the film’s mix reviews.  2018 is a year of growth for black directors to continue their work and proving white critics wrong.